Capello to trust in Crouch

Fabio Capello will place his trust in Peter Crouch on Wednesday night as England look to take a mighty stride towards next summer's World Cup in South Africa. After sailing serenely through Group Six, recording four straight wins, Capello's team have suffered their first major setback.

Injuries suffered in the friendly defeat of Slovakia on Saturday that forced Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole to withdraw over the weekend were compounded on Tuesday morning when their replacement, Darren Bent, did not even get through the warm-up in training.

Bent's absence has now been confirmed, with damage to tendons in his knee cited as the problem.

Capello's assistant Franco Baldini was quickly on the telephone to Aston Villa number two John Robertson to secure the release of Gabriel Agbonlahor, who has recovered from the hamstring problem that forced him to miss Friday's under-21 game in Norway.

However, given Agbonlahor will not have a single training session with the senior squad, having made his debut in Spain last month, it is to Crouch that Capello must turn against a very dangerous Ukraine outfit.

There is no indication Capello has ever been a big fan of Crouch.

The Portsmouth striker has never started a game for the Italian and went through a period when he did not even make Capello's squad.

However, as Capello acknowledged, there is no alternative.

"Crouch is the best forward I can put on there," said the England boss.

"He can do the job that Heskey did. But the most important thing will be the movement near him because he cannot play in exactly the same way as Heskey."

No thought was given to bringing back Michael Owen or, it appears, Theo Walcott, who was training tantalisingly close to the England squad at Arsenal's plush base in London Colney.

Lack of recent match practice for both men was a fairly routine explanation why those calls were not made. It also seems Capello's formation, which proved so successful against a Slovakian side that represented an identikit of what Ukraine will offer, is sacrosanct as well.

"I am not going to change the style," he said. "It will be the same as Slovakia, with (Wayne) Rooney and (Steven) Gerrard in the same positions, because the result was very good.

"During the game it is possible we will make some changes but we have enough options."

Although Heskey ended a six-year international drought with the opener last Saturday, it is the Aston Villa man's ability to get the best out of Rooney and Gerrard that earns him his place.

While Crouch has a better scoring record, his link-up play is not of the same standard, which is presumably why Capello has resisted the temptation to pick him to start a game during his 15-month tenure.

Rooney, whose brace at the weekend took his tally to seven goals in four games, will win his 50th cap tomorrow, at the tender age of 23.

Given the 33-year-old's crossing ability, it was perhaps no surprise Capello threw David Beckham's name in as a possible starter tomorrow, although Aaron Lennon is expected to fill the right-sided berth despite the fact Shaun Wright-Phillips is fit.

Also available is Rio Ferdinand, who is expected to partner John Terry in central defence for the first time since the win in Croatia last September.

Having established themselves as clear favourites to qualify for South Africa automatically, England will not want to falter against the only other unbeaten team in the group.

Capello expects the Ukraine to play exclusively on the counter-attack, with Andriy Shevchenko the obvious threat despite his diminishing powers.

"I know Shevchenko very well," he said. "He is a fantastic striker. He was with me at AC Milan and scored a lot of goals. He also scored against me when I was at Roma.

"He has not played a lot this season but he is very dangerous."